One Family's Cancer Journey

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How ’bout Those Cowboys?

I have been home for a couple of days and now I’m back with my grandmother. We are watching the Dallas Cowboys play, no, stomp the Rams. She has been a Dallas fan for decades. One of the delightful moments of Thanksgiving Day has been watching Mom as she watched the Cowboys. She is one of those vocal fans. She talks to the players on both sides of the ball, cheering and scolding at appropriate moments. Even now she is lying in her hospital bed, barely able to talk because of the tube irritating her throat, cheering on her precious team.

The blockage in her intestine is gone. However she is not out of the woods. All fluids have been stopped because she seems to be collecting fluid into her lungs. Over all she is weaker from the days of not being able to eat. Her back, legs and shoulders hurt because she is just skin and bones now and lying on her bed is like lying on rocks. We are giving her morphine to ease the pain, which slows respiration. She has had some labored breathing the last couple of days, so, as you can see, she has several more ‘trees’ to dodge.

Her primary care doctor will be back tomorrow and I know we will have several things to discuss. At what point do we help her to realize that it is time to stop fighting? When do we begin to talk to her about allowing death to come? I think we are almost there. Her mind is still very clear. She knows and understands almost everything that is happening around her. She still has a fighting spirit, responding with “Well, I’m still on the planet,” when I talked to her on the phone.

I will write more about this tomorrow. I will also be sharing with you some of the humorous moments we have had in the last few days.

P.S. The nurses have just brought a hospital bed with an air mattress on it and something to suction the drainage she is continually collecting in her throat. Yea!!!